by Connie Oswald Stofko The WNY Seed Library–the first free seed library of its kind in Western New York– has opened in Amherst. “There was no place in Western New York where you can get seeds for free,” said Brenda Snyder, who started working on the WNY Seed Library in June 2018. Food security is one of her goals. She feels that no one should go without food because they can’t afford it. The seed library aims to provide heirloom…...
If you have a wet area in your landscape, you may look at it as a problem area — but that’s because you’re trying to plant the wrong plants there. Learn about native plant choices that are so interesting they will make your neighbors wish they had wet areas in their landscapes, too. “Natives for Those Wet Places” by Lyn Chimera is one of the three articles in this month’s edition of WNY Gardening Matters. The publication is produced by…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko In the Great Plant Sale, “We want to offer things you’re not going to see everywhere,” said Sharon Reader, volunteer at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and a member of the committee that chose the plants for the sale. The deadline to pre-order is Friday, April 5, but if you want one of the really spectacular Hot Picks, you better order now — They often sell out quick. UPDATE: The deadline to order plants…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko and Stephen Vermette We’ve had some wild weather in the past week: lots of snow, wind, an official blizzard, and dangerously cold wind chills. But yesterday it felt like spring, with strong sun and temperatures around 60. Now some areas have flooding, and more flooding is possible. Tomorrow we might get freezing rain. Later in the week the forecast is for rain, then snow. Find out what you can do in your landscape in these changing conditions, and remember…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko “I have so many friends who say, ‘I can’t garden anymore,’ said Margaret O’Brian of Huntington Ct., Hamburg. As they get older, they have bad knees or other ailments that they didn’t have to contend with when they were younger. She tells them: “You may not be able to garden like you used to, so just switch it up.” One way to do that is through container gardening. Container gardening is planting things in pots and other containers…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko “It’s okay to kill plants.” When I heard Maria Zampini say that, I gasped. Loudly! I know what she means, but it does take your breath away to hear it stated so bluntly. Zampini, co-author of Garden-pedia: An A-Z Guide to Gardening Terms, will speak at PLANT WNY‘s daylong Education Conference on Friday, Feb. 1. She shared tips with me in a phone conversation from her home in the Cleveland area. Zampini always tells gardeners that your garden is yours, and you don’t need…...
Amelanchier is a native shrub that is easy to grow, gets pretty flowers, produces tasty berries and helps pollinators. As Lyn Chimera said in an article from January’s WNY Gardening Matters, what’s not to like? You can find more details here in the article on Amelanchier, also known as serviceberry, juneberry or shadbush. Also in this month’s issue are: An article discussing how some cultivars of native plants, also known as nativars, don’t support insects as well as the native plants…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Expect to hear more about native plants in 2019. A new group called the Western New York Native Plants Collaborative wants you to use more native plants in your garden, and there are lots of reason why you’ll want to use them. The collaborative is working on an education campaign to get gardeners excited about native plants and to encourage growers and garden centers to offer more native plants. The WNY Native Plants Collaborative includes members…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Previously I showed you my experiment with a container garden on my front lawn. That container garden wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, but I learned a lot and tried it again. This time it was successful and my neighbors told me they loved it, too! It didn’t look like much in May or June, but in July the plants filled out and it was gorgeous. We had a mild autumn, and the container garden…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Find out how climate change is affecting your garden through a new online tool that provides county-level information on how the climate has changed since 1950 and what you can expect in the future. Called Climate Change in Your County, the tool was launched recently by the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions. It tracks average annual temperatures, high and low temperature trends, length of growing season and annual growing degree days. It also offers precipitation trends and…...
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